Engadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/tag/Taiwan/rss.xml
https://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif?cachebust=trueEngadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/tag/Taiwan/rss.xml
en-usEngadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronicsCopyright 2017 AOL Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only.https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/11/qualcomm-faces-774-million-antitrust-fine-in-taiwan/https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/11/qualcomm-faces-774-million-antitrust-fine-in-taiwan/https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/11/qualcomm-faces-774-million-antitrust-fine-in-taiwan/#comments

Qualcomm's antitrust troubles aren't going away any time soon. Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission has fined the company the equivalent of $774 million over claims it abused its dominance of cellular chipsets in phones. The company effectively has a monopoly over CDMA, WCDMA (3G) and LTE chipsets, the Commission said, and it refuses to properly license its technology to others. Accordingly, the penalty will also have Qualcomm submit twice-a-year reports on negotiations with other companies.

After weeks (months, and years) of speculation, HTC has announced that its "Powered by HTC" R&D division -- the team behind Google's Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones -- will be purchased by Google for $1.1 billion in cash. According to HTC's CFO Peter Shen, this will mean about half -- yes, half -- of the 4,000 people in his company's R&D team will be joining Google, but he emphasized that HTC will continue developing its own range of smartphones, including its next flagship product. The agreement also grants Google a non-exclusive license for a large part of HTC's intellectual property. The deal is expected to be approved and closed by early 2018.

Uber doesn't have to pack its bags and leave Italy just yet. Another court in Rome has decided to suspend a lower court's rule banning the ride-hailing service from operating in the country completely. The judge has allowed it to continue its operations in Italy, at least until it's done appealing its total ban. An Uber spokesperson told Engadget that "drivers and riders... can now continue using the Uber app until the court's appeal ruling." Uber promises to "continue fighting this judgement in the hope that Italians will be able to enjoy the benefits of modern technology that provides reliable transportation at the push of a button."

Blizzard had a formative role shaping the strategy and MOBA titles that dominate eSports today. But the studio didn't really dive into competitive events until it started devoting floorspace to its own tournaments at BlizzCon 2009. Now the gaming titan is moving up from its annual weekend convention to open its first permanent competitive gaming space, a plush eSports arena fronted by a snack bar and memorabilia shop. And it'll be in Taipei.

At Computex, ASUS captured the hearts of many with its cute home robot, Zenbo, with Chairman Jonney Shih hinting at a retail launch before end of this year. Well, he's not too far off in the end. At today's local launch event, the company announced that its Intel-powered bot will be up for grabs in Taiwan on January 1st, albeit in a limited quantity for the first batch. Price-wise it starts from NT$19,900 or about US$620 -- just a tad more than the intended $599 price point -- for the 32GB standard package, and then there's a 128GB model plus self-charging dock for NT$24,900 or about US$780.

A senior manager at Foxconn, the company that makes Apple's iPhone handsets, is facing 10 years incarceration after being charged with the theft of 5,700 iPhones valued at nearly $1.5 million. According to AsiaOne, the Taiwanese testing department manager, identified only by his family name Tsai, coerced eight of his subordinates to smuggle iPhone 5 and 5Ses out of the Foxconn Shenzhen plant between 2013 and 2014.

Gogoro's battery-powered scooter left us rather impressed after our test ride in Taiwan back in 2015, and the startup has since sold over 14,000 units locally plus rolled out 240 GoStations nationwide for customers to quickly swap batteries -- as opposed to having their electric scooters plugged in for hours. To keep the momentum going, today the company announced the Gogoro S, a high-performance model equipped with the new 7.2 kW G1-S motor which pushes the scooter from zero to 50 km/h or 31 MPH in just 3.7 seconds -- a notable improvement from the 4.2 seconds with the original 6.4 kW G1 motor, which is already quite quick. But for the sake of safety, the top speed is still capped at 95 km/h or 59 MPH.

I've said before that Computex is ASUS' show -- and what better demonstration than having the recently-elected President of Taiwan "talk" to your newly announced home robot? Crowd noise necessitated several repeated commands to ASUS' Zenbo play some music, but if it was apparently a live demonstration (ASUS' PR affirmed to our Engadget Chinese colleagues that it was), then it's pretty impressive. I mean, with my connectivity, I can barely even upload to Instagram in the thick of the show.

]]>
asusasuszenbocomputex2016culturegearrobotstaiwantaiwanpresidentvideozenboTue, 31 May 2016 03:30:00 -040021|21386332https://www.engadget.com/2016/04/07/google-renewable-energy-asia/https://www.engadget.com/2016/04/07/google-renewable-energy-asia/https://www.engadget.com/2016/04/07/google-renewable-energy-asia/#comments
Plenty of big tech companies are looking to source green energy whenever they can for their substantial energy needs, and Google is the same. But it looks like it's hard to find the renewable energy you're looking for in Asia -- specifically China, which is why the company says it's offering seed funding to the Center for Resource Solutions. The non-profit is going to bring its experience in setting up and running renewable energy certification programs to Asia, starting in Taiwan. That's good, because that's right where Google needs green power for its data center.

]]>
centerforresourcesolutionschinacrsdatacentersgooglegreengreenenergypoliticsrenewableenergysciencetaiwantimeline16gonegreenThu, 07 Apr 2016 05:56:00 -040021|21339761https://www.engadget.com/2015/12/15/apple-oled-displays/https://www.engadget.com/2015/12/15/apple-oled-displays/https://www.engadget.com/2015/12/15/apple-oled-displays/#comments
Apple has opened a lab in Taiwan, according to Bloomberg, with "at least 50" engineers looking into advanced display technology for products including the iPhone and iPad. It's pulled in workers from Taiwanese display company AU Optronics, as well as Qualcomm, to develop new screens. The tech company is aiming to make its displays thinner, lighter and more efficient, with Bloomberg's sources adding that Apple is looking into OLED (organic light-emitting diodes) displays. While these would tick a lot of the aforementioned boxes (and don't need backlighting), they're also harder and more expensive to produce -- although they often look incredible. If Apple can get it right, however, it'll reduce its supply needs from other electronics giants, including Samsung, LG and Sharp.

LG has announced that it'll begin selling the LG Zero, its first smartphone to come with an all metal body, to customers in Taiwan from this week. Shortly afterward, the Korean conglomerate will begin hawking the mid-range device to users in Asia, Europe and Latin America. Unless, of course, you live in Germany, Korea, Russia or Singapore, where the phone will be known as the LG Class for reasons. Aside from the body, there's not much that distinguishes this phone from many of the others that'll occupy that chunk of the shelf in your local retailer.

Netflix only just launched in Japan last month (that's the Japan office pictured above), and it's already lining up its next destinations in Asia. In early 2016 the streaming video service is coming to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea, although no exact dates or pricing are specified. It's planning to bring the usual suite of features and even Ultra HD streaming to these countries when it lands, thanks to their existing broadband infrastructure. Where it might go after that (China?) is still unknown, but its plan for global availability by the end of 2016 is apparently still on track.

That was how ASUS Chairman Jonney Shih greeted some 2,000 fans at his "ZenFestival" event in New Delhi last week. And yes, he yelled on stage, just as he always does, with a generous helping of buzzwords and "thank yous." And there have been other memorable moments. One time, Shih "performed" a magic trick to extract a PadFone out of the back of a tablet, and later he "conducted" an orchestra of audio-centric laptops that were blasting out music. But don't be misled by his seeming goofiness: This is also a man who's evolved from stamping out motherboards to building smartphones. There's no better person than Shih, then, to tell us how times have changed for his 26-year-old company, and where ASUS is headed next.

While Tesla is working on solving range anxiety with its Supercharger stations, electric motorcycles and scooters continue to be tethered to outlets for hours in order to get back on the road. Smart scooter company Gogoro is trying to solve that problem with a network of battery-housing GoStations. Riders just pull up, swap out two batteries and ride away. The whole process should take less than a minute. It's an intriguing idea that requires partnerships with local governments and companies. But none of that matters if the scooter isn't at least on par with what's already available on the market. So we flew to Taipei and put the Gogoro smart scooter to the test.

Remember the good old days when phones came with a powerful xenon flash instead of just LEDs? Well, thanks to ASUS, you'll soon have the option to add one to an Android phone -- or at least to an ASUS one, anyway. The ZenFlash came to us as a surprise announcement at today's ZenFone 2 launch in Taiwan: It's a xenon flash dongle that connects via USB OTG, and you can stick it onto the back of your phone for that "400 times" stronger flash. Alas, it's still early days so there's no further detail on this device. No price, no date and no confirmation on whether the ZenFlash will work on non-ASUS Android phones.

As the TransAsia Airways plane clipped a bridge and crashed into a river in Taipei, it was all caught on a car dashcam, dangerously close. The tragic accident saw the plane glancingly hit a bridge shortly after takeoff, as seen in the video, with the plane and its 58 passengers crashing into a shallow river below. It's the second of TransAsia's ATR 72 planes to crash in the last year. We've added the video below.

]]>
dash camdashcamplaneplanecrashtaiwantransportationvideoWed, 04 Feb 2015 00:47:00 -050021|21138771https://www.tuaw.com/2014/12/24/apple-takes-over-htcs-home-country-iphone-6-most-popular-smart/https://www.tuaw.com/2014/12/24/apple-takes-over-htcs-home-country-iphone-6-most-popular-smart/https://www.tuaw.com/2014/12/24/apple-takes-over-htcs-home-country-iphone-6-most-popular-smart/#comments
HTC's home country of Taiwan is now devoted to Apple, according to new sales data. The iPhone 6 has driven Apple's rise in the region, and of the top ten best selling smartphones in Taiwan last month, various models of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus stole a total of four of those spots. That's a whole lot of Apple love from the country that HTC typically dominates.

HTC still managed to slide into second place in overall sales volume, with Samsung, Asustek, and Sony trailing behind. Taiwan has a population of just over 23 million people, which is about the same as Australia and a bit less than the state of Texas, if you're looking for comparisons.
]]>
applebusinessiphoneiphone 6newsreportsalestaiwanWed, 24 Dec 2014 12:00:00 -050016|21120939https://www.joystiq.com/2014/10/24/puzzling-platformer-forward-to-the-sky-scales-greenlights-tower/https://www.joystiq.com/2014/10/24/puzzling-platformer-forward-to-the-sky-scales-greenlights-tower/https://www.joystiq.com/2014/10/24/puzzling-platformer-forward-to-the-sky-scales-greenlights-tower/#comments

What do you get when you blend a third-person perspective, puzzles, platforming mechanics, JRPG-inspired art and a big sword together? Forward to the Sky, of course, the 3D puzzle-platformer-with-a-big-sword game from independent developer Magichnology. The Taipei, Taiwan-based developer added its first game to the list of Steam hopefuls on Greenlight, awaiting community approval for distribution on the PC platform.

Starting out as a side project for the developer in September 2013, the game is set in a "sky tower ruin." Players control a princess that gathers crystal pieces while ascending the tower and learning about a disaster that seemingly erased history. Magichnology crafted six levels for the game, each highlighted by the game's "relaxing mood, bright art" and "adventurous but peaceful music." Forward to the Sky is slated to launch in Q4 of this year on PC, Mac and Linux for $10.

New Zealand studio Grinding Gear Games has announced today that Path of Exile's Taiwanese release and second expansion have pushed to the game to seven million total registered players. The studio claims that Forsaken Masters, August's expansion, has been "extremely well-received" and led to a peak of 154,000 concurrent players.

A new patch for the F2P OARPG will deploy early next week; it is expected to include new cosmetic pets, tweaks to missions and skills, and new maps designed by supporters.

Taiwan is considering ticketing people who cross the street paying more attention to their iPhone than the cars around them. No, seriously. Taiwan currently has over 14 million mobile internet users, many of whom lawmakers consider "addicted" to their phones. The hope is a fine would curb that addiction (quite literally), and cut down on pedestrian deaths. According to the government, Taiwanese drivers often don't yield to pedestrians (even when they have the right-of-way). The "chaotic traffic" is already a dicey situation for those on foot. When you add a phone into the mix, your chances of survival get even worse. Distracted walking infractions would only apply to people in roads (walking off a pier while checking Facebook is a-ok), and would cost just $10 a piece. If the chance of being flattened by a motor scooter isn't enough for you to pause Angry Birds, our guess is a small fine won't do the trick either.

Between the 30 percent pay cut, losing $700 million and hiring and firing two CEOs in 15 days, it's not been a great time to be an Acer executive. As if things couldn't get any worse, the company is now subject to an insider trading probe that has seen long-time spokesperson Henry Wang detained for up to two months. Taiwanese authorities raided 14 locations on Tuesday, including the company's headquarters and some employee's homes. Acer has announced that it is cooperating with the police to examine two employees' individual mis-deeds, but wouldn't name and shame 'em at this time. When it rains, it pours, eh?

According to the latest IDC figures provided to Engadget, Samsung continued to perform well in Greater China -- as in mainland China and Taiwan combined -- in terms of smartphone shipments. In mainland China last quarter, the Korean giant topped the chart with a 19 percent market share, followed by Lenovo at 13 percent and Coolpad at 11 percent. IDC's Senior Research Manager Melissa Chau pointed out that compared to a year ago, the top three vendors remained in the same positions, but ZTE has since slipped from fourth place to out of top five, thus letting Huawei and Apple move up one place. Chau added that Apple's shipment was also boosted by the full rollout of the iPhone 5s and 5c to its other channels in China since late Q3.

While Xiaomi is nowhere to be seen in mainland China's top five, it's managed to nab 3 percent of the Taiwanese market to secure fifth place last quarter. This is no doubt thanks to the recent launch of the Redmi, aka Hongmi, budget phone there, with help from local carrier Far EasTone. But Chau cautioned that it's still early days for Xiaomi, for it "just barely edged out LG" in Taiwan, plus it's a long way behind HTC in fourth place. What's more worrying is that Acer isn't even in the top six in its hometown, which is just one of the many signs showing how it desperately needed the restructuring.

With the full rollout of TD-LTE plus Lenovo bringing Motorola back into mainland China, it'll be interesting to see how the landscape changes again a year from now.

Update: The Taiwan pie chart has been updated to rectify an error in the "Others" segment.

Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission has ruled that Apple's been naughty rather than nice this holiday week, fining it for 20 million Taiwan dollars (around $670,000) after it specified pricing to iPhone carriers. Once Apple sells distribution rights to an iPhone stockist, it has no right to dictate how much carriers and companies sell the devices for. According to the FTC's statement: "Through the email correspondence between Apple and these three telecom companies we discovered the companies submit their pricing plans to Apple to be approved or confirmed before the products hit the market." The iPhone maker will be able to appeal the ruling, although according to the WSJ, it could face a fine of up to $50 million Taiwan dollars if it doesn't comply.

Remember when Apple and Foxconn pledged to improve working conditions, increase wages and limit work weeks to 60 hours? Turns out they're still working on that. According to a recent investigation by China's Fair Labor Association, Hon Hai Precision (Foxconn's official name) is "not in compliance" with laws limiting overtime to 36 hours a month. Even so, the company has made significant progress: according to the FLA, Foxconn has completed 356 of the 360 items it agreed to when it promised to improve working conditions. In fact, the company seems to be taking the audit as a compliment.

"The results of the report demonstrate substantial overall progress by our company in carrying out the 15-month remedial program in many areas," Foxconn officials said. "However, we recognize that there is more to be done and we must continue to sustain this progress and further enhance our operations." Apple followed up the company's optimistic response with its own statement, noting that the average work week at all of its suppliers was 53 hours, well under the 60 hour limit. The company also made progress by improving facilities, building more exits and adding more toilets. There's still work to do, but both companies have promised to do everything they can to resolve the remaining issues.

Confirming the rumors and leaks, ASUS has revealed its new PadFone Mini in Taiwan. A smaller alternative to the existing PadFone Infinity -- a line which CEO Jerry Shen tells us will reach the US -- it combines a 4.3-inch phone with a 7-inch tablet dock. Confirming the leaked details, it's packing a 1.4GHz quad-core Snapdragon MSM8226 CPU and 1GB of RAM inside, with a 960 x 540 screen on the phone and 1,280 x 800 resolution panel on its tablet. It has 16GB of storage and a microSD slot for expansion, with Android 4.3 software aboard plus 1,500 mAh and 2,200 mAh batteries in the phone and tablet, respectively.

As Shen mentioned during our interview, there are also some special tweaks like the Hi-Light "Owl Mode" and high speed continuous shooting aboard. The specs are a step down from the higher-end Infinity series, but as a result ASUS can offer both parts for an off-contract price of NT$ 11,990 ($405). This one is still only planned for release in China, Russia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia, but its unique combination of portability and price might make it worth bringing to the US as well.